Postcards

Power Point: Prevent economic catastrophe

"You have to look at this bill as not a salvation for the economy by any means. It is simply the largest effort by any legislative body on the planet to try to take government action to prevent economic catastrophe, and even that may be insufficient."

-- House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, Democrat of Wisconsin, at a news conference Thursday. House Democrats unveiled a $825 billion stimulus package that calls MORE

Guest Post: How to survive the storm

by Nancy Koehn, Professor, Harvard Business School

Are you in the center of the storm?

I teach business history and leadership at Harvard Business School and have been fascinated lately by the notion of powerful people getting a grip by stepping back and letting go.

The idea is counter-intuitive. But it works, particularly in today's environment of great turmoil and uncertainty. Seeing the forest for the trees is critical. Consider these lessons in MORE

Power Point: Steve Jobs discloses illness is serious

"During the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought."

-- Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs in a Wednesday email to employees, explaining that he'll take a leave of absence until the end of June. The news arrives in the wake of his disclosure last week that his extreme weight loss was due to a "hormone imbalance." And that follows another announcement three MORE

Yahoo's bosses get boosts from their boards

How many public-company boards should a top exec at a Fortune 500 company join?

That's debatable, particularly in these tumultuous times. But I hardly expected a harsh retort from my colleague Adam Lashinsky after I touched on this topic in Postcards yesterday. I said that Sue Decker, Yahoo's (YHOO) outgoing president,  has a "breadth of experience" and an "impressive resume" because she's on the boards of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), Intel (INTC) and MORE

Sue Decker moves on from Yahoo

Sue Decker is leaving Yahoo (YHOO). The news broke Tuesday afternoon just as Yahoo announced that its board has chosen former Autodesk (ADSK) chief Carol Bartz as the company's new CEO. As Yahoo's president, Decker was the lone Yahoo insider who was a strong candidate in the CEO search. And she wanted the job. But Yahoo's poor performance and her loyalty to outgoing chief Jerry Yang damaged her reputation too MORE

Meet Yahoo's new CEO, Carol Bartz

Yahoo named Carol Bartz its new chief. With an appointment of Bartz, the former CEO and current executive chairman of Autodesk (ADSK), the Yahoo (YHOO) board is signaling that experience in general management and tech trumps a media and advertising background. Just as important, this is a bet on a boss known for guts and decisiveness - the latter a critical trait that Jerry Yang, the boss she is replacing, MORE

Power Point: Don't wait for the worst-case scenario

"You identify areas where you think you can be more efficient by assuming the worst-case scenario. Then you end up saying, Why don't we just do that anyhow?"

--Intuit (INTU) CEO Brad Smith, from the article "How to manage your business in a recesssion," in the current issue of Fortune. The article may be helpful reading for bosses reporting fourth-quarter earnings.

Alcoa (AA), one of the 30 companies that makes up the MORE

Wrath for Rubin, and Mack's shot at redemption

Such wrath! Readers' comments on Friday's post about Bob Rubin were angrier than I ever expected. A half-dozen commenters suggested that the onetime U.S. Treasury Secretary, whose reputation collapsed along with the fortunes of Citigroup (C), should go to jail for bungling the job that he's now leaving. On the one hand, I'm tempted to say: Calm down! There's no evidence - not a whiff - that Rubin did anything MORE

Power Point: Bob Rubin admits his regret

"My great regret is that I and so many of us who have been involved in this industry for so long did not recognize the serious possibility of the extreme circumstances that the financial system faces today."

- Bob Rubin, explaining his decision to leave Citigroup (C), in a letter today to CEO Vikram Pandit. Rubin joined Citigroup in 1999, after serving as Treasury Secretary in the Clinton Adminsitration. As my MORE

This week: Power shifts at Merrill, Microsoft and beyond

This year started off with a bang - at least in terms of coming and goings of powerful people. Which Postcards is largely about.

This week, I told you about Liz Dolan, once Nike's (NKE) global marketing boss, joining Oprah Winfrey to be CMO of her new venture, the OWN cable network. And yesterday, my colleague Jessica Shambora wrote about Ellen Kullman, No. 15 on the Fortune Most Powerful Women list, MORE